To grain, or not to grain? That is the question.

[Jolly]

Grandpa always liked to "corn out" a beef for two weeks before he killed them. Claimed a little marbeling made for better tasting beef. Most of the time, he butchered at about 18 months old...that size seemed to suit the old chest freezer on the back porch.

Lately, I see a lot of folks applauding grass-fed only.

Grass fed is ok, but in my opinion, it's inferior beef.

Would you rather have grass-fed or "finished" beef?

[itsb]

dont take me wrong,but I think it takes longer than 2 weeks for grain to get in there system,however good luck

[1shotwade]

I agree! We always finnished out our beef on corn for 6-8 week.I also agree with you that the finnished beef is much better taste wise.On the same line of thought the CDC just released findings last month that the whole fish oil and omega 3 thing is not benificial to your heart and can contribute to some kinds of cancer.

[CountryWannabe]

Well, I got some purely grass-fed beef from my daughter early this year and I can't say I liked it as well as my own beef, which IS grass fed but supplemented with a small amount of grains (mostly oats, tiny amount of corn) for the last three months. I think the grains add marbling and flavor, and mine seem more tender that my DDs, even though the beef I got from her was from a cow related to my animals.

Mary

[Ceilismom]

I married a cattle rancher almost 9 years ago, and grass-finished beef is all we eat. I still cannot stand the taste of grass-finished hamburger. The steaks are good, roasts are good, but to me, the ribs and hamburger taste the way the stuff that comes out of the back end of the cow, smells. It takes a lot of sauce or seasoning to cover that up.

My preference would be that the beef I eat has grass available to it at all times, and grain offered free-choice for a few weeks before butchering.

[Maura]

I think grass fed is healthier with the proper ratio of fat to CLA. But, you have to know how to cook it. You cook it differently than corn fed.

[unregistered353870]

Just taking any common beef breed and grass finishing it, you're likely to be very disappointed. They are bred to do well raised on grass and finished on grain. Some of the Scottish heritage breeds are supposedly good finished on grass but I have no experience with those.

[arabian knight]

I agree Grain. And Grain the last at the very least the last Two Months. A couple of weeks will do nothing at all.
I grain at the rate of all they can eat the last 3 months, and OHHHH so tender beef that is.

My father-in law has a nice herd of black angus & a certified & inspected slaughter house .
Every fall he insists that we each get a beef . His beef are grass raised & fed a little corn at the end . It is not near as good as properly finished beef . I truly believe all the hoop-la about grass raised beef is just that , hoop-la .

[Cindy in PA]

I've been eating local totally grass fed beef for about 10 years & it is great! I was warned that it was different in the beginning, but never cooked it any differently and it has always been great. When I run out, I buy some beef in the store for a short time if I must. This year I bought ground beef & it was a chewy tasteless mess, both 83% & 90%. Cubes were tasteless also. I hope I never have to go back to regular beef in the store. I imagine grass then grain is good, but give me grass fed any day. At least I know there is no Zilmax in it.

[jwal10]

Grain fed and corn fed are 2 different things Here on the west coast we don't grow corn for feed. We feed wheat, oats and barley. I prefer some grain, either all along or 2 months at the end. Right now and for the last 6 yrs or so I have been using grass fed. A good friend grows it. We don't eat a lot, mostly home ground burger and a little to flavor soup, stew, fajitas and pot roast. We buy roasts and process from there. I don't like store bought, but have never had to live off it either....James

[Taylor R.]

I only buy grass-fed beef. I prefer the taste and texture, as does my husband (who went to college on a meats judging scholarship and is therefore VERY finicky about his meat). I know there are many out there who don't like the taste, or are simply so rooted in modern day ag that they can't wrap their heads around it and therefore have some deep seated prejudice against grass-fed beef (can you tell I've tried to explain this to some...more traditional, shall we say... members of my family).

I've always bought from the same ranch, and it makes me wonder if maybe other grass-fed beef really isn't as good??

[Melissa]

I have a friend who raises grass-fed Herefords. He does not feed them any grain at all. We get a beef from him every year. I feed a lot of people at my house- many guests, family and friends, and everyone says it is the best meat they have ever tasted.

[texican]

Imho, vegetarians and non meat eaters like grass fed beef. ...not knowing, that ALL beef is grass fed, for most of it's life... and finished on grains the last couple of months for marbling. I've been eating beef and other critters since I was six months old (and rejected that baby food swill)... and imho, anyone who prefers straight grass to marbled, is making their opinions based on something besides the actual cut of meat in front of them. As in political, spiritual, or economic reasoning's.

Unfortunately, the life cycle of cattle in this country isn't really known well. A vast uneducated segment believe that eating beef is taking up space that other agriculture could be using.... not knowing that the best ag land is used for growing crops, and the rest (hillsides, rocky fields, woodlands) are where most cattle are born and raised... A small percentage is raised on public lands, at a loss to the govt and to wildlife, and I could agree with those concerns, but the rest of the country??? rotational grazing is where it's at.

You couldn't give me straight grass fed beef... unless it was fresh... then I'd grind it up for hamburger, after going to town to get some beef fat to mix in. Of course, I might be prejudiced, as I get most all of my beef for free, from the butcher in town. This week alone, I got 12 ribeyes, 6 t-bones, a couple dozen packages of round and flank steak... soon as the expiration date arrives, they put it in a box in the cooler for me... along with cases of chicken, pork, fish, etc. that are about to go out of date, to feed raw to our dogs...

[Taylor R.]

Or they don't care for the fat?????

It's completely unreasonable to assume that someone couldn't possibly prefer the TASTE and TEXTURE of grass-fed beef over traditionally grain or corn finished beef.

[unregistered353870]

The grass being fed makes a difference too. Some grasses produce better meat than others. And many farmers will use the term grass finished when they're really finishing on pasture with grasses/legumes/forbs...that will generally turn out much better meat than strictly grass finished. The other side of that coin is beef finished on silage in a feedlot and sold as "grass finished" to make it sound more natural.

[arnie]

of corse corn fed and finished is best even if you only feed for 2 weeks it tends to help clean out and firm up the fat 6-8 weeks with a fat 16-18 month old beef will produce prime beef like you can only buy in now hard to find expencive gormet butcher shops .the stuff sold at the grocery is choice at best . the extra fat marbleing of the meat makes it tender the corn making the best flavor . the grass fed being more healthy mearly because of a lower fat content which is a dryer pice of meat.i'm fine with raiseing a baby beef every year to about 10 months of age. with the bull being angus and my milk cow being a brown swiss graining it for a few weeks to get the milk taste out of the fat though its not prime it is tender and well flavored never having a stressed day in its life or having to walk far to drink from a pure spring fed creek or have to run except in play.it is still better than anything at the grocery counter but the burger has to little fat so I have to add some oil if I fry it in a pan but its good on the grill there are a couple other factors like the quality of water and the distance it has to travel to get full of grass and being shipped and stressed prior to butchering that can affect it.but a couple weeks of corn feeding will help and a couple more will be better. same with a hog corn feeding firms up the fat making for much better bacon and ham just better flavored meat all the way through

[Vosey]

I started eating grass fed and finished beef many years ago when my brother started raising beef. They also were fed grain as needed. I LOVE the flavor 100x more than store-bought beef. But I love lamb (sometimes his beef tasted pretty similar to their lambs due to them getting into each others feed per my brother) and game (venison, elk and moose) over any other meat. Luckily I work in a ranching community where I can now buy grass finished beef directly from the farm again. (I get a little confused with the terms farm and ranch having moved from the east coast to the west coast!)

[joebill]

Not throwing rocks at anybody or their cow, but I have been eating beef all my life and the very best I have ever had is grass fed and finished by a gent about 20 miles from here, then butchered very near the pasture, by his own hand.

conversely, I have had the marbled beef from the corn belt, and one guy was fond of serving foundered and butchered beeves. It is not all, in my opinion, the feed. The guy I buy mine from has been breeding them for a long time for his own table. Lots goes into it, and I wouldn't pretend to know a fourth of it.

Certainly, it has nothing to do with politics on my part. Cattle fed on the Western ranges eat stuff that would otherwise dry up and blow away or feed range caterpillars.

Again, not throwing rocks, I just don't think one can make the kind of generalizations often expressed without having eaten of an AWFUL lot of cattle, fed both ways....Joe

[MO_cows]

Two weeks of corn wouldn't make enough difference, IMHO. When people talk about grass fed I wonder if they mean grass finished or don't know the difference. It's a lot harder to properly finish a beef on grass. And in most parts of the country, the window of opportunity is narrow.

We have done our own beef with grain finishing and also attempted to finish on forage. Hands down the grain fed beef was better.